Pressing Matters

We all know the internet has significantly impacted media's business model over the past three decades, and the conventional wisdom is that AI will do the same. Many believe it will replace reporters, lead to computer-generated news stories, increase misinformation, produce more fake news, and generally make a struggling industry even worse. But what if the opposite is true? What if AI can free up reporters' time to do th...

Whatever stodgy image you have in your mind of the typical finance news reporter, I guarantee it isn't Allie Garfinkle. And yet still relatively early in her career, Allie has established herself as one of the best in that business with a resume that includes Forbes, The Deal, Yahoo Finance, and of course Fortune, where she serves as senior finance reporter, co-chair of Fortune Brainstorm Tech, the lead writer for Fortune Term...

This week, we're highlighting another great podcast, Misadventures in Marketing, that is produced by our friends at the American Marketing Association San Francisco (AMASF).

In this, the 4th episode of Misadventures in Marketing, hosts Steve Haney and Peter Farago dive into the fun-filled world of corporate messaging, start-up style. They discuss the importance of creating a messaging house, understanding customer pain points, ...

Annie Saunders has been a tech journalist for several years now, but her diverse career background, local news, commodities, food, had her questioning why we'd even invite her on this show. No need to question yourself, Annie. Generalists make great tech journalists, as is evidenced by the reporting on AI, EV transportation, and climate tech for Morning Brew's Tech Brew, where Annie serves as editor. 

She's a lifelong...

Julie Bort has been in tech journalism long enough to have had not one, but two tenures of 13 plus years – first at Network World and then at Business Insider, now editor of VCs and startups at TechCrunch. You might be surprised to learn that one of the most prolific voices in B2B Tech reporting nearly became a teacher, and you'll definitely be surprised to hear that she and her husband gave it a go at being scuba bums (her te...

Jeremy Owens just landed a new gig as the latest editor in chief of the San Francisco Business Times. In this market, that's a minor miracle. Jeremy joined us to talk about that change, his early plans for the outlet's mission, and why he thinks San Francisco is the New Orleans of the West. 

That's a new one for this episode of Pressing Matters from Big Valley Marketing, the podcast that brings you conversations with ...

Are you ready for RSA 2025? Matt Kapko of CyberScoop is, and he definitely doesn't want to hear about AI, although he and I–and everyone listening to the podcast today–all know he will. In addition to AI, Matt joined us to talk about his early days singing in a punk rock band in Orange County, his time in a string of hyperlocal newspapers, and more of what he expects from RSA for our annual conference preview episode of Pressi...

Fred Vogelstein wanted to be a Moscow bureau chief. He did manage to get to Berlin as a student in the months after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, but he still hasn't been to Moscow. Instead, Fred became one of the most influential technology reporters of his generation, with stints at the Wall Street Journal, Wired, The Information, US News, and Fortune. Today he and fellow tech legend Oh Malik are the Co-Founders and Editors ...

Unlike most of our previous guests, Catherine Sbeglia Nin didn't set out to be a reporter. She was a doctoral candidate in film theory. When realizing she was miserable, she figured she'd find other ways to tell stories after dipping her toes in the journalism waters. RCR Wireless, one of the magazines of record for Telco Wireless and networking, offered her a reporter job in 2019. Within three years, she was managing edi...

It's pretty rare these days to find anyone in tech media who has been at the same outlet for a quarter century. But Patrick Seitz has been covering the fascinating world of tech, finance, and the stock market for exactly that: 25 years at Investors' Business Daily. A Chicago-area native who cut his teeth covering courts and crime, Pat switched to covering tech in Washington DC in the early nineties, and he's never lo...

Michael Krigsman doesn't call himself a journalist. Yes, he has produced 800 podcasts and videos in the past 11 years as the founder and host of CXOTalk, but he doesn't have a journalism degree or any editorial training, and his pieces are a mix of editorial and sponsored. That said, Michael does have an innate sense of story. He's not afraid to challenge a paying client to let him produce a video that's got a n...

At the age of eight, Esther Ajao did something braver than most of us will do in our entire lives. Having spent her early years in her native Nigeria, raised by an extended family of grandparents and uncles, Esther moved across the ocean to Brooklyn to reunite with her mother, who had moved to America when Esther was just six months old. Removed from her home and a big family that helped shield her self-proclaimed introverted perso...

The path Michael Nuñez took to a seemingly straightforward gig – Editorial director at VentureBeat – was anything but direct. He covered the fun side of Hong Kong, the travel beat in Korea, and even wrote for an airline magazine in New York City after various tech writing gigs. He spent two years and change as head of marketing at a VC, but for coming on two years now, Michael has led VentureBeat, one of the most influential outlet...

Hello everyone. We've got a very special episode for you this month as we celebrate the pod's second anniversary. Given that AI is the topic of the decade, not just in tech and journalism, but the whole wide world, we asked two of our favorite guests back to discuss where this is all going. Jennifer Strong of the Shift Podcast, who also was a Pulitzer Fellow for AI accountability. And Connie Guglielmo, the former CNET exe...

In this edition of the Pressing Matters podcast, host Dave Reddy, head of Big Valley Marketing's Media and Influencers Practice, speaks with Jennifer Strong, a seasoned podcaster who began her radio career at 12 in Tennessee. Jennifer's extensive experience includes work with NPR, The Wall Street Journal, and MIT Tech Review. Now at Shift, she produces and hosts podcasts that delve into AI and other emerging technologies,...

Diana Goovaerts initially got into the publishing business. But frustrated by that industry’s speed - or lack thereof - she shifted to the fast-paced world of journalism, first as a local reporter in her native North Jersey and, later, in the past decade, at WirelessWeek, GSMA and now Fierce Network, where she serves as executive editor. We’re all glad she made the change. 

An expert on all things wireless and, more recent...

Next month, Fortune Brainstorm Tech will once again bring together the top thinkers in tech and business in Park City, Utah. And for the first time since 2020, Andrew Nusca will be leading the show as editorial director. He promises the typical knockout conference with big-name keynotes, Olympic-level networking and panels on everything from AI to security to how to communicate with Gen Z. The son of a dance instructor and a nurse ...

Rich Jaroslovsky’s career goal was to be the D.C. correspondent for a major newspaper.

He achieved that - at 22 - for a little outlet called The Wall Street Journal.

He covered Gerald Ford’s doomed re-election campaign in 1976. Five years later, mere hours after President Reagan was shot by would-be assassin John Hinckley, Rich was at the White House, standing a few feet from Secretary of State Al Haig when Haig...

Are you an aspiring reporter looking to get a job at Axios upon graduation? I have three letters for you: UNC, the University of North Carolina. Sam Sabin, this episode’s guest, is the second Axios reporter we've had on the pod, and, like her colleague and previous guest, FinTech reporter Lucinda Shen, she's a Tar Heel. 

Since 2022, Sam has covered cybersecurity for Axios, a job that includes two weekly newslette...